UK food retailer Iceland, famous for its frozen foods, used to feature celebrity Peter Andre in its TV commercials to entice shoppers. Now Iceland hopes its concern for forests will also start pulling in the punters, following its move last week to remove palm oil from its own-brand products. The decision was sparked by the devastating impact that the ubiquitous commodity is having on south-east Asian rainforests. Iceland has already taken the controversial ingredient out of half its portfolio, with the remainder of its products set to be reformulated by the end of this year.

In itself, the move won’t save the forests of Sumatra or Borneo, where palm-led deforestation is putting dozens of species on the endangered list, including the emblematic orangutan. Before its announcement, palm oil only occurred in 130 of Iceland’s own-brand products (around 10% of the total) and amounted to a mere 500 tonnes a year. Total palm oil production in Indonesia alone last year stood at 42 million tonnes. Furthermore, the supermarket will continue to stock non-Iceland branded products that include palm oil, from ice-cream and margarine to detergents and soaps.

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